1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for employing various analysis and visualization methods for a large database containing both text and numerical data.
In particular, the present invention pertains to a method and a system for producing a viable combination of means, selected from a a plurality of analysis methods and their visualization methods, for locating an item of information that is difficult to find using a single visualization method, and to improve the reliability of a result obtained by analysis.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the data retrieval or data warehousing (storage) field, it is very important that data be analyzed from various perspectives and that the data be presented visually in order for features, obscured in large amounts of data, to be detected, and for new facts to be revealed. For the conventional data retrieval or data analyses methods for which on-line analytical processing (OLAP) is used, effectively combined are various statistical processes, data analyses, such as dicing/slicing, and visualizations, represented by business graphs or charts, that enable a user to pick out important features and trends that cannot be detected merely by referring directly to raw data.
However, even when a sophisticated independent analysis method and its visualization process are employed, there is no systematic means available to comply with a request that a plurality of analysis methods and visual representations be combined to search for elements that are not readily assessable when a single analysis method is used, or to assure that adequate analysis results will be provided. The analyzation and visualization of data are performed only in accordance with a user's instinct.
For example, a user may not notice the existing relationship between a time period having an unseasonably low temperature (e.g., a cool summer) and the sales of air conditioners when the two separate sets of data in FIG. 1 are referred to individually. However, when these data are displayed synchronously, along the same time axis, as is shown in FIG. 2, to the user the positive correlation between the data sets will be immediately apparent.
In the database field, studies have been made of a visual query for which a visualization technique is used. However, for this study it is more important that a change in one search result or a change in one variable query be visualized interactively, so that a user can select an optimal query. No means is now available whereby a user can make a decision by visualizing data without a visual query.
Since the conventional analysis method and visualization are fixed or are under the complete control of a user, no system is provided that combines a plurality of mutually associated analysis methods and their visualization methods and that assures the integrity of the analysis results, or that is able to infer new information from phenomena that do not seem at a glance to be related to each other.
Furthermore, with the conventional method, a plurality of graphs displayed on a screen are combined, or functions are combined, to display a graph. Therefore, it is implicitly assumed that all the displayed graphs have a common numeral attribute along the X axis and the Y axis. As a result, no method is provided for incorporating all the graphs that can ordinarily be used, or for calculating an available composition or a neighboring representation using a set of data that are the source for the graphic representation.